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Admirable film.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The acting in this movie is really good.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

The Italians did fight on the Eastern Front and fought well. Unlike the battles in the Western Desert, the Italians really believed in this war and fought with distinction. However, the war fought on the Eastern Front was a bitter battle and because this movie was made with the co-operation of the Soviet Union it has none of the horrors that actually happened in the east. The Soviets are portrayed as heroic and the better side which was far from the truth. But considering the proproganda crap that came out of Hollywood this is excusable. I happen to like movies about this part of World War Two because it is an antidote to the John Wayne type of movie which distorts much of what actually happened. There are some good movies on the subject, Cross of Iron and Stalingrad to name two, but this is sadly lacking in comparsion.

I will start by noting that I like to watch historical movies for the history and I think this one gives you a lot, not so much names, places, battles, dates as the "feel" of what it was like for the foot sloggers, details of uniforms, etc., and this movie does a good job. At times I felt the icy winds howling across the Russian Steppes, the T-34 tanks advancing against Italians caught out in the open, with no properly prepared positions or anti-tank weapons. I confess I missed the subtle anti-Fascist/pro-Soviet allusions other viewers referred to, I did feel for the poorly trained and equipped Italian soldiers fighting a tough and determined and better equipped enemy.

I saw this many, many years ago under the title "Attack and Retreat". It is about the Italian participation in World War II on the Eastern Front - where Mussolini sent soldiers to die for his own grandiose vision of himself as an equal partner in German conquest.I'm not able to recall many details, but there are a number of remarkable scenes that stand out in my memory. One was of a young soldier and a Russian girl in a field of high wheat. Quiet bullets whisper through the windblown stalks in deadly counterpoint to the young love of the boy and girl. In another scene Peter Falk, looking very small and lonely in a bleak and forbidding landscape of snow and ice, struggles to get to the rear while artillery rockets streak through the sky behind him. In still another scene, an Italian guard plays the Internationale on his harmonica to show some human solidarity to a group of Russian civilian prisoners. A mocking German guard demands that the prisoners sing, and a singer stands up to sing.Shot in very striking black and white, it was an effective antiwar and anti-fascist film with powerful visuals and a strong message of humanity.I liked it very much and wish it were shown more often.

Saw this movie only once, in the late 60's. I still remember it quite clearly. A close-up, unflinching look at the horror and futility of war. The endless, bleak Russian steppes, the shattered cities, the ice-bound winter landscapes, all combine to show how hopeless the German invasion was.The winter retreat is one of the most frightening and depressing scenes in the movie, but it is just one of several. The film follows several characters through the war in interwoven threads, and each one is memorable.I am eager to see this on video.